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March 14, 2008

Are Yankees Batters Missing The Protection Of Unit & Pavano?

Peter Abraham takes a look at some Yankees HBP stats in his blog today. In summary, on the matter, Peter says:

Every fan is convinced that their team doesn’t retaliate enough, that the announcers are biased against them and that beer costs the most in their stadium. You react to what you see every day. But in the end, it’s about the same for everybody.

Based on this, I decided to look at the last four years in Yankeeland, and have come up with the following stats via the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia:

	   YEAR	 BFP	HBP	Hit Rate
Pitchers   2004	 6240	60	104.0   
Pitchers   2005	 6182	84	 73.6   
Pitchers   2006	 6215	59	105.3   
Pitchers   2007	 6285	60	104.8   
                                        
	   YEAR	 PA	HBP	Hit Rate
Batters    2004	 6364	80	 79.6   
Batters	   2005	 6405	73	 87.7   
Batters	   2006	 6455	72	 89.7   
Batters	   2007	 6527	78	 83.7

The way this reads is the following: In 2004, a Yankees batter was HBP once every 79.6 PA – and, in the same season, a Yankees pitcher hit an opposing batter with a pitch once every 104 PA.

So, in the last four seasons, the only year where Yankees pitchers hit batters with a pitch, with near the same frequency that Yankees batters were plunked, was 2005.

Clearly, in 2004, 2006 and 2007, Yankees batters got hit around once every 80 PA whereas batters facing the Yankees were hit with a pitch around once every 100 PA.

So, what happened in 2005? As much as I hate to say this, it was the Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano factor. Both of those pitchers showed excellent control in 2005 – according to their BB/9 IP and SO/BB ratios – but, they also hit a lot of batters, compared to other Yankees pitchers that season. You can make a case that Johnson and Pavano were hitting people with some intent in 2005.

Pavano was done after his games in 2005. And, Johnson was no longer nasty after 2005. And, then, the Yankees HBP mismatch picked up in 2006 where it left off in 2004.

Or, am I missing something here?

Posted by WW Staff at March 14, 2008 09:50 AM

Comments

Excellent analysis.

Posted by: David [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 14, 2008 11:56 AM

Well, looking @ Pavano's starts, there really isn't a rhyme, reason or pattern to the batters he hit (Melvin Mora, Hinske, Catalanatto, Bret Boone, Larry Walker, Toby Hall (twice) & Brian Roberts).

I think it may be more relevant to look @ their HB by years. I had shown a couple entries ago, that players like Rodriguez & Giambi were being hit fairly consistently before they became Yankees, so the high number of Yankee HBP's may be indicative of the way they're pitched, not an agenda to see how "soft" the Yanks are.

Posted by: Raf [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 14, 2008 01:03 PM

Are you seriously bored, stupid, or retarded? You sound like you have absolutely nothing to do. And Pavano hasn't made enough starts to factor into anything, other than being a dud. I can't believe that someone has you on their payroll to print this drivel. Bring it on over to nomaas.org, and discuss it, if you can handle the truth.

Posted by: Bocephus [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 15, 2008 09:05 AM